DOS Error Code Descriptions

DOS was designed to run on computers with far less processing power than is currently available today. To keep memory to a minimum, errors were reported by displaying an error number rather than a descriptive message. The following is a list of what the error messages would have been if space for a translation table had been available. Error numbers are shown in bold.

1 Invalid Function Code

2 File Not Found

3 Path Not Found

4 No Handles Available, Too Many Open Files

5 Access Denied

6 Invalid File Handle

7 Memory Control Blocks Destroyed

8 Insufficient Memory

9 Invalid Memory Block Address

10 Invalid Environment

11 Invalid Format

12 Invalid Access Code

13 Invalid Data

14

15 Invalid Drive

16 Attempt to Remove the Current Directory

17 Not Same Device

18 No More Files

19 Disk is Write-Protected

20 Bad Disk Unit

21 Drive Not Ready

22 Invalid Disk Command

23 Cyclic Redundancy Check Error

24 Invalid Length for Disk Operation

25 Seek Error

26 Unknown Media Type, Not a DOS Disk

27 Sector Not Found

28 Out of Paper

29 Write Fault

30 Read Fault

31 General Failure

32 Sharing Violation

33 Lock Violation

34 Wrong Disk, Invalid Disk Change

35 File Control Block Unavailable

36-49Reserved for Future Use

50 Network Request Not Supported

51 Remote Computer Not Listening

52 Duplicate Name on Network

53 Network Name Not Found

54 Network Busy

55 Network Device no longer Exists

56 Net BIOS Command Limit Exceeded

57 Network Adapter Hardware Error

58 Incorrect Response from Network

59 Unexpected Network Error

60 Incompatible Remote Adapter

61 Print Queue Full

62 Queue Not Full

63 Not Enough Space for Print File

64 Network Name was Deleted

65 Access Denied

66 Network Device Type Incorrect

67 Network Name Not Found

68 Network Name Limit Exceeded

69 Net BIOS Session Limit Exceeded

70 Temporarily Paused

71 Network Request Not Accepted

72 Print or Disk Redirection is Paused

73-79Reserved for Future Use

80 File Already Exists

81

82 Cannot Create Directory Entry

83 Interrupt 24 Failure

84 Out of Structures

85 Already Assigned

86 Invalid Password

87 Invalid Parameter

88 Net Write Fault

I don't know what error codes 14 and 81 were for. Those error codes which translate to the same error message in the above list are presumably triggered by different problems. I don't have any more detailed explanation of what some of these error messages actually mean and what the real causes of the errors are but presumably most of the ones that are not obvious would normally only show up during program testing of a newly written program.